The challenge for day four is to create a poem making an abstract concept concrete.  I was thinking of my brother in law lately anyhow.  So, I chose to embody the grief felt by both he and I regarding my sister’s passing away a few years back.

To Make You Whole
by Michael Romani

From your pain of loss
I watch you reeling
Wanting your sadness to end
But, it's the nature of your feeling

The loss of my sister
Has left you a lonely mister
As the dailiness of your passing years
Have become a pool of ponded tears

Preferences and words accrued
A no longer to be renewed
My grieving brother in law
I wish you happiness to recall

Happiness like a dog's wagged tail
Are the dreamed memories that still
The wave of blackness in your soul
I only wish I had the words to console

Grief enough for a lifetime
Has become the path we've walked
Bargaining with God has become our crime
In the acceptance we have talked

At moments, we've prayed
To mute the pain that stayed
After my sister was gone
But, her joy must live on

Even if only in our memory
And you, dear sir, are my family
In an integration of loss there is connection
As our agony recovers from this devastation

The absence has left a crater sized hole
And I would give most anything
If that anything would make you whole
I honor your courage in these words I sing

(c) April 4, 2018  Michael Romani
All Rights Reserved